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Dam Project Revives Struggling Aral Sea

Posted by: Nate Berg

11 April 2007 - 6:00am

Since the late-1960s, an irrigation project have been slowly draining the entire Aral Sea, located on the border between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. But a new dam project is bringing the sea's water back, and with it the fish that support the region.

"The dam is part of a $68m project, initiated by the Kazakh government and financed by loans from the World Bank."

"It is an ambitious undertaking that aims to reverse one of the world's worst man-made environmental disasters and bring back the sea which many predicted could never return."

"The recently constructed 13km dam has split the Aral Sea in two parts."

"The dam did not solve the entire problem. On the Uzbek side the Southern Sea continues to shrink."

"'The Uzbek government needs to hurry if they want to preserve at least some of the sea,' said Nazhbagin Musabaev, the governor of the Aralsk region."

"In Kazakhstan, the dam has allowed the river to feed the northern Aral and as a result the sea has been pushing back into the desert. Kazakh officials say 40% of the water has already returned."

Full Story: Dam project aims to save Aral Sea
Source: BBC, April 9, 2007
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